A House of Metal
by IndigoNightandRayneStorm
Summary: SEQUEL TO HOUSE OF CARDS! Everything was perfect, Gambit was free of Magneto and happily in the arms of the one he loved… Until Logan mysteriously disappears. Why? And will Gambit find out before it breaks him? LoganxGambit slash. Don't like, don't read.
1. Prologue

**Title: **A House of Metal

**Author: **IndigoNight

**Summary: **Everything was perfect, Gambit was free of Magneto and happily in the arms of the one he loved… Until Logan mysteriously disappears. Why? And will Gambit find out before it breaks him?

**Feedback: **Yes please, yay reviews!

**Pairing: **Gambit/Logan

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X-Men: Evolution or the characters I'm just borrowing them for fun.

**Spoilers: **Nope

**Rating: **R for some swearing, sexual scenes, and violence, but mostly just to stay consistant.

**Warnings: **Slash, don't like, don't read

**Author's Note: **So, here it is! The sequel! Yay! So this one is a lot more angsty than the first one, and sadly there is less Logan. But, I personally, love the ending, so please stick it out, k? Huge thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter of HoC, JazzLady, Patricia16, and KariHermione. Now, on with the fic. Don't forget to review!

**Enjoy!**

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**Prologue**

It was a quiet night. Everyone in the institute was peacefully sleeping. In a neat, simple room on the top floor, in the large bed lay two who slept happily, wrapped in each other's arms. It had been several month, and now nothing was left of their past trials but for the slightly tattered right ear of one of them. The tears, the blood, all were gone. And now the couple slept happily, oblivious to the small group of shadows that was once again threatening to invade their solace.

Four shadows to be exact. They crept silently across the dark lawn in front of the institute, coming to a halt directly below a certain window. The one in the lead raised his arms above his head, and the entire group began to rise, floating up to the window. With a simple swish of his hand the metal window frame swung back and the group landed silently.

The long hallway in which they stood was lit solely by the moon shining in through the window, which they had just entered. As the lead shadow straightened up, his pale eyes turned to fix on one, specific door, and he grinned a grin of pure malice and evil pleasure.

Logan woke with a start, not quite sure what had woken him. He sat up slowly, careful not to jostle his beloved Gambit, whom was still peacefully sleeping next to him in the bed.

He shivered slightly as a cold breeze, typical of late October, which it happened to be, brushed over his bare chest. He frowned, noticing that the window to their room had been left open. Odd, he didn't even remember opening it. Ah well, Gambit must have. So he carefully climbed out of bed and crossed the room, silently closing and locking the window.

Then he froze, once again frowning. Perhaps he was only imagining things, everyone did say he was rather paranoid, but he could have sworn he'd heard something in the hallway beyond their door. And, with reasoning he always used to counter the accusations of his paranoia, they did live in a school for mutants, and things rarely went bump in the night for no particular reason.

So he turned and quietly padded across the room. But before he had even reached the door, it swung open to reveal four distinct shadows standing in the doorway. Logan bent his knees, automatically falling into a defensive stance.

"Hello, Logan," said a falsely cheerful voice, just quiet enough so as not to wake anyone, "it's been a while."

"What do you want," Logan hissed dangerously.

"I'm afraid, that you have something of mine," said Magneto, stepping forward, flanked by his crones, into the moonlight streaming in through the window and nodding his head toward the bed, "And I've come to get payment for him."

"I didn't take anything," Logan growled, "In fact, if I recall correctly, you're the one who beat him up and left him for dead."

"All the same, that tragic incident would not have happened had you not meddled," was Magneto's benignly calm reply.

"You can't have him back," Logan said, firmly positioning himself in between the evil mutant and the bed.

"Did I say I wanted him?" Magneto raised his eyebrows, "No, no dear boy, I said I wanted payment."

"Fine," Logan snorted, "Then here it is," and with that in one swift movement he extended his claws and rushed at the man.

"My dear, dear boy," Magneto chortled, as with a flick of his wrist he had Logan suspended in midair, held up by the metal that filled his body, "How many times are you going to try that trick before you get it into your head that it won't work with me?"

Logan only growled at him and struggled against the invisible hands restraining him.

"Here are your choices," Magneto said, taking another step further into the moonlight, "You can either, come with us willingly, and your precious traitor lives, or you don't come willingly, and he doesn't."

Logan glared at his captor with the fiercest glare he could muster, but in the end his shoulders slumped, there was no way he could let Magneto harm his beloved, not ever again.

"Fine," Logan hissed, his head bowed to hide the tears shining in his eyes, "I will come with you peacefully, so long as you don't touch him."

"Very good," said Magneto cheerfully. He strolled calmly to the window, opened it again, without even touching it, and levitated the entire group out.

Dawn rose over the institute and light came streaming into the rooms of those who had left their curtains open.

Gambit sighed as he woke, blinking repeatedly as his eyes met with glaring light coming in from their open window. He closed his eyes again, snuggling comfortably back into his pillow, waiting for the strong arms he was becoming to accustomed to, to surround him, for the usual feather-light kiss on his neck, the warm, deep voice whispering good morning to him. But this morning they didn't come.

He frowned sitting up to find that Logan wasn't even in the room. Logan was gone.


	2. Without You

**Hey all, so here's the first chapter. Huge thanks to Patricia16 and KariHermione for reviewing. Read, Review, Enjoy!**

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Days turned into weeks, weeks to months, and soon it was Spring, and still not a word had be been heard for or about Logan. It was as though he had simply dropped off of the edge of the world. He was gone.

But life went on. The end of the school year was drawing closer with each passing day. Training continued. The kids were just that, kids, causing more mishaps and mayhem every day. There was never dull moment at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

Everyone moved on. Except for one, lonely mutant. It was nearly a month before the others could convince him to leave the room that had been his and Logan's. Even after that they had watched him carefully, as though he would suddenly go crazy or something. But he never did, in fact he rarely spoke, and spent as much time as he could sitting in his room, gazing blankly out of the window.

His eyes were always distant and far off. He never looked anyone fully in the eye. He said as little as possible. But as long as no one mentioned Logan, he was more or less alright, or at least, that was what he led them to believe.

One night, as Gambit sat sleepless by the window, watching the stars, he at last broke down. Five months, five long months, and he hadn't once cried until that night. He had managed to get on for so long by busying himself so that he had no time to think. But tonight, to night he could to nothing but sit and remember.

He remembered how it had only been just over a year ago when they had engaged in that fateful battle in that old ware house. How it was only been exactly one year ago, to the night, that Logan had first slipped that simple, gold band around his finger. The one that even still remained there, which he toyed with absently as he allowed the tears to slowly slide down his cheeks.

It was almost impossible to believe that it had been so long, and yet at the same time it felt like it had been a million years longer.

His lip trembled as he saw a single star shooting across the sky.

He closed his eyes, the tears redoubling, his left hand clutched to his chest as the rocked slowly back and forth, and he made a wish.

He wished that he could see his face again, hear his voice. He wanted to hold Logan's hand, to tell him he loved him. He wanted Logan's warmth next to him in bed at night; he wanted to be able to loose himself in the infinite depths of his eyes just once more.

At length he slowly, brokenly, turned away from the window, shutting the curtains tightly behind him. Miserably he crawled into the too large bed, curled into a small ball under the blankets, and cried himself to sleep, for what would not be the last time.

The Crowd Roars  
The Days Soar  
The Babies Cry  
Without You

The next morning Gambit couldn't bring himself to get out of bed.

He had woken slowly, and felt warm for the first time since Logan left. He'd been dreaming. In the dream Logan had never left, he was there, lying in the bed, with his warm, strong arms wrapped tightly around his beloved. When Gambit woke he could still almost feel those arms around him, and he'd refused to open his eyes, afraid of shattering the warmth and loosing the illusion forever.

Luck him, it was a Saturday, so the students were around to notice that he hadn't yet made an appearance.

Around elven someone came banging on his door, but he ignored them, and eventually they went away. But all too soon they were back again, and this time they didn't just go away.

"Mr. Gambit?" Kitty asked, sticking her head in through the door. Gambit didn't move, being completely buried under the blankets and rather comfortable, still holding to the last fragments of his dream. Kitty came all the way through the door and opened it, let Scott, Jean, Rogue and Kurt in.

"Gambit?" questioned Scott softly.

Gambit grunted something, still wishing that they would just go away.

"You were supposed to take us into the woods for a training session today," reminded Jean.

"Ask Hank," he grumbled testily, "I believe I caught a cold." The students seemed to believe him, muttering their "hope you feel better soon" 's as they filed out of the door, well most of them.

"Are you sure you're alright?" came Scott's concerned voice.

"I will be," Gambit lied.

"Well, feel better." Gambit sighed with relief as at last he heard the door close again behind them, and he was alone once more.

But it was ruined, the warmth was gone, and at length he gave up on recapturing it and sat up, blinking in the blinding sunlight streaming through the window.

Wait a minute, he paused, he was certain that he had closed the curtains last night before going to bed, and he was just a certain that none of the students had opened them he would have heard them. Yet here it was, both the curtains and the window were flapping freely in the cool February breeze.

Slowly he crawled out of bed and crossed the room to the window. He reached out to close it, but froze. For a moment, just the briefest moment, he could have sworn he'd smelled the musky, piney scent that was so uniquely Logan, but then it was gone.

He shut the window with a snap and closed the curtains tightly once more, before turning his back bitterly to the window and crawled back under the blankets.

_Without You_


	3. Dreaming

**Hey all, here's the next chapter. Huge thanks to Patricia16 and KariHermione for reviewing. Read, Review, Enjoy!**

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But Gambit couldn't stay in bed forever. So soon, sooner than he wished, he forced himself to get up and plaster a smile onto his face, and once more act as though nothing was wrong.

He would laugh with the others, he went about his work smoothly, he talked more. In fact, he became so good at pretending, that eventually, the others began to believe him.

Little did they know however, that he was really getting closer and closer to the edge with every passing day. They didn't know, they didn't see the way he would sit and stare blankly out of the window still, they didn't hear him crying himself to sleep at night, they didn't know about his secret booze stash under the floor boards. And they never saw the scars.

One night, as the clock chimed one in the morning, Scott woke with a start. At first he was at a loss as to what had woken him, but then he began to hear small sounds of distress from the other side of his wall. Quickly he jumped out of bed and rushed to the room next to his, Gambit's.

Upon entering the room he scanned it quickly, cautious of an intruder, but he found none. So he crossed quietly over to the bed, where Gambit was tossing and turning in his sleep.

"Stop… get away…" he mumbled, tears beginning to stream down his face.

"Gambit? Gambit, wake up!" Scott called, gently shaking his shoulder. Gambit woke with a start and sat up so fast that Scott had to jump back to prevent himself from getting hit in the face.

Gambit stared blankly straight ahead and blinked several times, his chest heaving.

"Bad dream," Scott said quietly. Gambit nodded slowly, forcing himself to relax and lay back down. "Do you want to talk about it?" Scott asked, gingerly sitting on the edge of the bed.

"No, I'm alright," Gambit said briskly, rolling over as though he was going to go back to sleep.

"Really?" Scott asked, "Because I don't think you are," Gambit turned back to him, scowling, "You may fool everyone else, Gambit, but sometimes I hear you at night, I see when all those times when you pause randomly and your eyes go all distant again. I know you aren't alright, and I know that sometimes it helps to talk about it." Gambit said nothing, but he didn't order Scott to leave, which he took as a good sign.

"Was it about Logan?" he asked quietly.

"No," was the response, even quieter, "It was about Pyro."

"Pyro?" Scott blinked, not having expected that response, "What about him?"

"More of a memory than a dream really," Gambit whispered, sitting up and drawing his knees up to his chest.

"A memory?" Scott prodded when Gambit didn't continue.

"When I told you what happened the night I came here, I left something out," Gambit sighed, beginning to rock back and forth slightly, "After Magneto was done with me, when I was trying to find my way here, Pyro, he cornered me in an alley, and he… took advantage of my weakened state," Gambit fought valiantly against the tears threatening to over flow. He had thought that he had made his peace with that a long time ago, but now he knew that he had simply been hiding from it.

It took a moment for Scott to get what Gambit meant, then when he did the younger mutant was at a loss as to what to say. "What did Logan say when you told him?" Scott asked at last, unable to think of anything else.

"Nothing," Gambit choked, "I didn't tell him. I-" but his sentence was cut off by a sudden violent shiver as a chilly breeze blew in from the window.

"Why do you leave this open all the time?" Scott asked curiously as he crossed the room and closed it, locking it tightly.

"I don't," was Gambit's whispered reply, "Every night I'm sure to close and lock it, but that doesn't stop him, nothing does."

"Who?" Scott asked, shaking his head with a frown.

"I see him sometimes too, in the city," Gambit continued rambling, "Just for a second out of the corner of my eye, but whenever I turn to look for him, he's gone, like a ghost or something," Gambit choked on the last few words and buried his head in his knees again.

"Who do you see?" Scott pressed gently.

"_Him_," was Gambit's dramatic reply. After that Scott could not get another coherent word out of him. So Scott simply settled for sitting on the edge of the bed, awkwardly rubbing Gambit's back until the older mutant slowly fell back asleep.

Scott remained in the room for a few minutes more after Gambit was safely snoring, frowning at the window before returning to his own room, resolved to help Gambit anyway he could.


	4. Gasp

**Hey all. So here's the next chapter, yay! Huge thanks to Patricia16 and KariHermione for reviewing. Sorry for the short update. Read, Review, Enjoy!**

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"Professor?" Scott asked quietly, finding Xavier in the library after school the next day.

"Yes Scott?" the Professor asked, looking up.

"I'm really worried about Gambit," Scott said.

"What's wrong with him?" Rogue asked, apparently having over heard them. Jean, Kitty and Kurt followed her.

"Well, he's having dreams and hallucinations, and…" Scott's throat burned with disgust as he remembered the look on Gambit's face when he had told him what the dreams were about.

The Professor apparently caught some of the thoughts going through Scott's mind as he asked, "Do you know what he is dreaming about?"

Scott told them quickly, and they all began to loudly exclaim anger and disgust to match his own.

"We can't let him get away with that!" said Jean.

"Ew, seriously, Pyro, he's like gross!" Kitty put in.

"We must get over there and open a big can of whoopidy whoop on his a--," Kurt stopped glancing at the Professor.

"Lets go," Rogue said, already turning to head toward the X-jet.

"Calm down, just for a moment," the Professor stopped them. They all halted and turned around, gazing expectantly at them.

"Professor, did you not hear me?" Scott demanded. The Professor sighed and relented.

"To the X-jet," he said.

Scott jumped out of the jet almost before it had even landed, the others not far behind him, except for the Professor, who as usual stayed in the jet while they fought.

The Professor had led them to an old abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city where Magneto's cronies liked to hang out.

"Oh look," sneered Colossus from where he lounged against some crates, "It's the Brady Bunch here to bring us to justice."

"Where's your precious traitor?" jeered Sabertooth.

"And his little lover?" Pyro's eyes held a queer, unsettling light as he made the last statement, which his friends apparently found extremely funny.

Scott didn't say a word; instead he simply shot a blast at Pyro, which blew the mutant back into the wall of the crumbling building. Sabertooth growled, Colossus yelled, and Pyro, his face almost as red as his hair already had a bright stream of fire shooting back in retaliation, when a cold, smooth voice stopped them.

Magneto stepped in his regal, stately manner out of shadowed, collapsing doorway to the warehouse, "Relax boys," he purred. The X-Men glared, but waited before making another move.

"Well isn't this a lovely surprise?" Magneto said lightly, turned to the cautiously waiting teenagers, "You coming to visit me like this."

"Can we just kick their asses already?" Sabertooth growled impatiently.

"So eager," Magneto leered, "No, I think that our young friends have just handed us the perfect test run for our new recruit." All three cronies suddenly chuckled.

"We're not here to fight some new recruit, it's _him_," Scott motioned to Pyro, "Who we've got a—" but he stopped short as the said "new recruit" strolled easily out of the shadows behind Magneto into the light.

"Logan," Rogue whispered in shock.

"S'up, kiddies?" Logan leered. He seemed completely relaxed, his hands shoved into the front pockets of his jeans, his expression cold and distant, and the sun shining distinctly off of a small metal ring running through his right ear.

"I believe our young friends here came looking for a fight, Logan," said Magneto, his evil eyes never leaving the faces of the shocked teenagers.

"Retreat," came the Professor's stern voice in their minds, "Quick, before he attacks you." Hesitantly they did, running back to the X-jet, the Professor already set to lift off.

"This is going to be fun," Magneto grinned, watching the jet fly away.

* * *

**Oh my god! (Gasp). Well, y'all have been wandering where out dear Logan is, and now you know. Yes, he is now working for Magneto! (Gasp, again) Don't worry, everything will be explained… eventually. Mwahahaha. The more reviews the faster the update:)**


	5. Truths and Lies

**Hey all. So sorry for the long wait, but here it is. Huge thanks to my sole reviewer for this time KariHermione. And I am very sorry to say that if more people don't start reviewing, this may be the last chapter. Now how sad would that be? Remy would never know why Logan is doing what he's doing, and they'll never get the beautiful ending I wrote for them. That would be very sad. So, review, review, review. And Enjoy!**

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Back at the institute Scott found Gambit in the library, half-heartedly flipping through the pages of a book.

"Hey," Scott said conversationally as he sat down across from the older mutant.

"Where did you all go today?" Gambit asked softly, his voice holding nothing more than mild curiosity.

"Out," Scott said evasively.

"Oh," Gambit returned to the book, but Scott knew he wasn't actually reading it.

"Look," Scott sighed, "I have some news. Some good, some bad, and… some worse."

Gambit looked up with interest. "Go on," he said when Scott hesitated.

"Well, the good news, we know were Logan is," Scott started, "The bad news, Magneto's got him."

"That son of bitch!" Gambit yelled, jumping to his feet and making to storm off, but Scott grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"The worse news," he added, his voice very quiet, "It looks like he went willingly."

"What?" gasped Gambit in shock, shrinking back.

"I know, it surprised us to--," started Scott.

"No!" Gambit cried, cutting him off, "No, you're wrong, Logan _hates_ Magneto, he'd never…"

"Gambit, I'm sorry," Scott said.

"No," Gambit repeated, shaking his hand out of Scott's grip, "No, no!" and with that he turned and fled the room. A few minutes later the sound of a motorbike could be heard roaring off down the road.

"That could have gone better," Scott sighed.

Scott was still sitting in the same seat in the library when Rogue entered.

"Hey Scott, have you seen Gambit lately?" she asked.

"He left," was Scott's simple reply.

"What? Why?" she asked, then a look of dawning comprehension crossed her face, "You told him didn't you?" she yelled. Scott nodded meekly. "You idiot!" she slapped him across the face with one gloved hand, "Now there's no tellin' what he's gonna do!" with that she ran out, leaving Scott to stare after her while rubbing his rather sore cheek.

The sun was just beginning to set as Gambit pulled up outside of his old apartment building. If Logan was really working for Magneto then he'd here, as this was where Magneto had all of his cronies live.

He sat on his bike, glaring up at the building as though everything was all it's fault.

Suddenly Gambit jumped, pulled from his thoughts by rough hands pulling him off of his bike and shoving him up against the wall.

"What the hell are you doing here?" a familiar voice hissed.

Gambit blinked, that voice, those hands, those lips so close to his. "Logan," he whispered, "I could ask you that same thing."

"I live here," Logan growled, although he didn't quite meet Gambit's eyes.

"Why?" Gambit pleaded, "What are you doing here, with _him_? Why did you leave?" Gambit was fighting against the tears that threatened to fall, but he refused to cry, not in front of Logan, not now.

"Just get out of here," Logan growled, turning as though to shove Gambit away back toward his bike, but for some reason Logan didn't let go of his shirt.

"Just come home," Gambit pleaded, "Please, I love you, I need you." Now that he was here he couldn't just leave. Slowly he closed the space between them. He wanted so much to touch his former lover, to hold him. "Please?" he whispered when there was no more than an inch of air in between their faces, but he didn't wait for an answer, instead, unable to stop himself he pushed forward, capturing Logan's lips in his own.

But after barely a moment Logan pulled away, and this time did throw Gambit back against his bike, "Just get out of here!" Logan yelled. Gambit just remained where Logan had thrown him on the ground. "If I ever see you around here again," Logan threatened, extending his claws. Gambit stared at him for a moment more, but still refusing to let Logan see him cry he soon scrambled to his feet and kicked his bike into motion.

But as the motorbike roared away, Gambit's eyes weren't the only one's that were over bright.


	6. The Bottle

**I am sooooooo sorry for the long wait. Due to renovations in my houses my internet was disconnected. But, thank the gods, I have it back now. Trust me, the wait hurt me more than it did y'all. But, finally, here's the next chapter. Huge thanks to my sole reviewer for the last chapter, Patricia16. Here it is, read, review, enjoy!**

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Much later that night Gambit at last returned to the institute. Quietly he wheeled his bike into the garage and snuck through the house to his room, not wanting to draw any attention to himself.

Once in his room he crawled under his bed and pulled up the convenient loose floorboard he'd found some months ago and drew from his stash a fresh bottle of vodka and his knife. Opening the bottle he downed nearly a third of it in one swig.

He then crossed the room to his mirror, pulling off his shirt as he went and tossed it carelessly across the room. Stopping front of the mirror he turned his back to it to examine that scratches that bled sluggishly all over his back from where Logan had thrown him across the concrete. Then he turned back to the front and appraised the many healing scabs that covered his chest. Not deep enough, he decided as he took another swig of vodka. But before he could even reach for the knife there was a knock on the door.

"Gambit?" Scott said softly, not bothering to wait for an answer and opening the door. Gambit froze, the knife, the vodka, the scratches, all in plain view.

"What happened?" Scott asked in concern, at first only noticing the scratches. But he stopped, seeing the rest.

Gambit just waited for Scott's reaction, his face covered in a mixture of guilt and defiance.

Scott's eyes flickered in shock from Gambit's face, to the half empty bottle of vodka, to the knife, smattered with dried blood as Gambit never bothered to clean it, to the scabs, to the tear tracks running thickly down Gambit's face, then he simply turned tail and ran.

Gambit stared after him in surprise, that not being the reaction he had expected. Gambit closed his eyes, tears beginning to fall once more as Logan's face back at the apartment building flashed again before his eyes. He took a third swig, leaving barely enough in the bottle to cover the bottom and threw it against the far wall where it exploded with a loud crash. But still the image didn't go away, still Logan haunted him, so, blinded by tears, he grabbed the knife and swiped it across his chest, leaving a bright trail of scarlet in its wake.

"Gambit, stop!" called the Professor's voice, whether out loud or in his head, Gambit couldn't tell through his own yelling. He felt the knife torn from his grasp and turned. Now he knew where Scott had gone. The Professor sat calmly in his wheel chair in the doorway, Jean on one side, slowly floating the knife away from him, and Scott on the other. Behind them Storm was hurrying the other students back to bed, but several of the older one's stayed anyway.

Gambit backed away from them, his hands clutching at his head as a torrential flow of memories flooded through his mind. Logan laughing, Logan smiling, Logan sleeping in his arms, Logan's lips, Logan's touch, his kiss. "NO!" Gambit screamed. He wanted it to stop; he just wanted it all to stop. It hurt, it hurt so much, he couldn't control it.

Dimly he heard other people yelling over his screams, he felt hands grabbing him, trying to hold him still, but he struggled. He fought against them, more images flooding in now, Pyro advancing on him, Logan glaring at him in disgust and hate.

No, no, he couldn't breathe, couldn't think. Then everything went suddenly and blissfully quiet. He felt the slight, sharp sting of a needle being pushed into his arm. Then the screaming stopped, the images and memories stopped, he stopped fighting, stopped moving. In fact he went completely limp and would have collapsed on the ground had Scott not caught him.

He blinked several times, his vision going fuzzy, then completely black.

8

Gambit woke slowly some time later. He blinked, peering around slightly confused. He found himself in his bed, Scott asleep in a chair nearby. It was late still, or probably more like early, as it was still dark. He sat up, his head pounding and heavy feeling. The world around him seemed muffled as though coming to him through a very long tube, like he had been drugged. Oh yeah, he had been.

He looked around. The knife was gone, the pieces of shattered vodka bottle were gone and the fresh wound on his chest had been neatly bandaged. He wondered if they had found his stash, but didn't dare look just then. But then he blinked and as he noticed the window swinging open and a long, dark shadow spilling across the floor.

He struggled out of bed, tripped when he hit the floor, the drugs making him sluggish and his movements clumsy, not at all his usual grace, but he caught himself on the bedside table, and leaning heavily on the wall, made his way slowly across the room to the window.

"Logan?" he whispered, not wanting to wake Scott up, "Logan?" The shadow shifted, then disappeared. "No!" he said, trying to move faster to get to the window, but he tripped and fell to the floor with a crash.

Scott jerked up, startled out of his sleep by the sound. "Gambit?" he said, hurriedly crossing the room to the fall mutant.

"Logan," Gambit muttered, struggling to his feet with Scott's help and rushing to the window, nearly falling again three times on the way, "He was here, in the window."

"Relax," Scott soothed, trying to pull the older mutant away from the window, "You were just dreaming."

"No, no, I wasn't," Gambit insisted, loathing how crazy his voice sounded, "He was there."

"I believe you," Scott lied soothingly, "But he's gone now, so come back to bed." Reluctantly Gambit was forced to let Scott led him away from the window and back to bed. He lay down peacefully and didn't move, knowing that Scott was still watching him, but he didn't fall asleep again for some time. When at last he did, he fell away to troubling dreams involving mysterious shadows and Logan hating him.


	7. Of Two Minds

**Hey all! Once again sooo sorry about the wait. I got sidetracked and didn't manage to find my way out of Eclipse (New Stephenie Meyer book, if you don't read them, you should!) for a while. But I'm back now, I really am trying to be more consistant. Anyways, here's the chapter. Read, Review, Enjoy!**

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They kept him sedated for a long while. Just how long Gambit wasn't quite sure. The days blurred together, nights and days sliding passed without distinction. Gambit didn't try to get out of bed very much; he simply didn't see the point. They made sure someone was with him at all times, even moving an extra bed into his room for at night, but it didn't matter. Mostly Gambit just ignored whoever it was at the time. He didn't speak, sometimes they did, but he didn't listen, he just didn't care.

But at night, night was the only time he even cared to live, because at night was when his window would open and that terrible, beautiful shadow would fall across the floor.

Yes, Logan still came, for he was certain it was Logan, every night to sit in the window and watch him. His guardians didn't know, they never saw it, but he was there.

When he heard the window frame swing back Gambit would pull the blanket closer and close his eyes, pretending to be asleep. But he never would be, he wanted to watch Logan too, to talk to him, to demand to know why things were this way, but he just laid there, listening to the steady, even breathing from the windowsill.

Eventually they stopped sedating him, but still he didn't try to move. He was simply beyond the point of caring. He now lived solely for the nights, when he could sit, and listen to his beloved's breathing.

But slowly, slowly, without the influence of the drugs, his mind began to move again, began to think again.

His mind was united in one thing, demanding to know why he was just laying there, but from there it split into two opinions. One wanted to know not only why he was just laying there, but why he was still breathing at all, what was the point? Logan didn't love him, whatever his reasons were for sitting in his window every night, his mind simply refused to believe that it was love, why else should he live if not for Logan?

But the other half of him insisted that he should move on. Forget Logan and everything from before. Maybe he should just leave all together, go to California or someplace just as far away, and start all over.

However, he didn't act on either part of his mind. He just continued to lie there. Until one night, about a week after they stopped sedating him, they told him they trusted him enough to let him be alone, and left, closing the door quietly behind them.

And so he was alone. At first he hadn't responded, just continued laying and staring at the ceiling. But then it began to sink in. He was alone, this was his chance, he could do whatever he wanted now, they were gone. No one was watching him; he wasn't drugged.

Slowly he crawled to the edge of the bed and climbed out. He was a bit unsteady on his feet from so long of remaining bed ridden, but didn't let that stop him.

Once out of bed he paused. He hadn't thought about _what_ he was going to do, just the he _could_ do something. So he knelt down and crawled under the bed, pulling up the loose floorboard to look at his stash.

They hadn't found it. It was all still there, his vodka, his other knife, everything. Without thinking he grabbed a bottle and the knife and crawled back out from under the bed. But beyond that he didn't move. He stopped, kneeling there on the floor by the bed, knife in one hand, vodka in the other. Was he really going to do this again? What about starting over, that could work too. But this was much easier, just giving up. He'd been fighting his whole life; he didn't want to fight anymore.

But just as he was opening the cap on the vodka he heard the soft swish of the window opening behind him. He froze, his heart leaping. He looked down at the vodka in his hand and bit his lip, but the sudden desire, the sudden _need_ to not just hear Logan, not just know he was there, but to talk to him, to see him, to hold him in his arms, was stronger than the fact that he was tired of fighting. This, for this, he would fight.

So in soft, discrete motions he put the lid back on top of the vodka bottle, and leaping to his feet rushed to the window, grabbing the fabric of Logan's shirt and pulling the other mutant to him before he could jump away.

At first neither of them said anything. They simply remained there, suspended in time for just a moment; Gambit's face buried in Logan's shirt, breathing deeply of his unique scent, Logan remaining perfectly motionless.

"You have to let me go," Logan said quietly, at length breaking the silence.

"Why?" Gambit demanded. He didn't want to, he couldn't.

"I'm sorry," was Logan's only reply before pulling himself away from Gambit's arms, leaving the other mutant with nothing but a torn fragment of his shirt.

"Gambit?" came a quiet voice as Scott entered the room, "I heard some noises, are you-" but Scott stopped, his eyes landing on the vodka and the knife laying beside the bed and traveling to Gambit, standing motionless, his back to the door, staring out of the open window.

Gambit didn't respond immediately. Instead he watched his beloved shadow slip away over the front wall of the institute. He closed his eyes for just a moment, conflicted, the small fragment of Logan's shirt clutched to his chest. But as the warmth began to fade from the cloth he opened his eyes again and they were no long empty, doleful, broken or conflicted, instead they were steady and calm, his mind was one again.

He turned, seeing was Scott was staring at. "I was throwing them away," Gambit said quietly. He crossed the room and crawled back under the bed, pulling everything out from under the loose floorboard and dumping the whole lot into the trash can in the corner of the room. "I'm done laying around. I'm ready to fight again."

Scott frowned, unsure of whether or not he could believe Gambit. But the older mutant's eyes didn't waver, he wasn't shaking, he didn't flinch. He was standing tall, his left fist clenched at his side.

Scott relaxed, and smiled. "Welcome back," he said happily. And Gambit, for the first time, smiled back.


	8. The Fight, Part I

**Hey all! So, holy cow! Only two more chapters after this one! I had so much fun write these stories; I really hope y'all had as much fun reading them. Huge thanks to The.Neutral.Zinner and Patricia16 for reviewing chapter 6 (Sorry, I forgot last time), and KariHermione and Patricia16 for reviewing the last chapter. OK, here it is, read, review, enjoy!**

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The next several months had the decided air of being simple and happy, life perfectly back to normal. And for the most part, things were fine, or they were trying to be anyway.

But Gambit knew that things were far easier said than done. He had a purpose now, a goal, he knew what he had to do, but that didn't make things any easier. Everyday he was careful not to think about it, but sometimes, in the dead of the night, or a pause in the day's activities, Gambit felt himself once more questioning why he was even trying.

Never the less, he forced such thoughts away. Logan did love him; he knew that, now he just had to find out why Logan wouldn't admit to it, and what Magneto had to do with it.

After that night Logan hadn't returned. At first it had scared Gambit, but he refused to think about that either. Instead he merely focused on pretending life was normal. He put himself through rigorous training everyday, morning afternoon and evening, even sometimes in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep. He was determined to return to his old fighting level, and even surpass it.

He still didn't talk a whole lot, but then again, he had _never_ been a social person really. But he did eat meals with the others, and laugh with them, talk with them. He loved to help with their training sessions, the way they laughed all the time, and turned everything into a game.

But always, in the end, he only had one reason to continue breathing, to find Logan and discover the truth.

At last his chance came. He, Hank, Storm, Scott, Jean and Rogue and Kurt were up in the hills, Xavier had gotten a call about some kind of disturbance in an old abandoned factory up there, and they'd gone to check it out.

They approached the slowly disintegrating factory cautiously. The woods was beginning to reclaim it, scraggily undergrowth and weeds creeping up through cracks in the cement floor and vines crawling up the sides of the buildings and down through holes in the roof.

The small group was checking out a large room that seemed to have once been an assembly line, when a cold, almost metallic voice spoke behind them.

"Ah, my dear friends," said Magneto, a twisted grin crossing his lips, "It has been a long time." There were four hazy shadows behind him, whose faces they could not see, but they didn't have to.

Gambit's eyes in particular were fastened to one silhouette, one that took his breath away despite how hard he tried to ignore it.

Suddenly as they all lined up to fight a new thought occurred to Gambit, something he hadn't thought of in all of his planning for this day. What if he and Logan were forced to fight? He bit his lip, scanning Logan's stony, unreadable face. Damn, why did he have to be so good at hiding his emotions?

Magneto was babbling about something, nobody was really listening; nobody really cared.

Finally Sabertooth just growled and leapt at Jean, starting the fight. Gambit didn't move at first, torn by indecision. He needed to be with Logan, to talk to him, he couldn't turn his back on him to fight somebody else, but could he actually fight the man he loved?

Soon however, his decision was made for him as Scott advanced toward Logan, only to be intercepted by Colossus. Storm and Hank were both struggling with Magneto, Jean and Sabertooth still duking it out, with Rogue and Kurt popping around, helping where they could, mostly battling Pyro.

Gambit had no choice as Logan advanced toward him. He backed away slowly, not even reaching for his deck of cards, finding it impossible to believe that Logan would actually attack him. But that was his undoing, as suddenly Logan punched him in the stomach, making him stumble back several steps. Still Gambit refused to fight Logan, so Logan hit him, again and again, until he began to block, abet half-heartedly.

His mind was whirling. Logan was hitting him, his face still empty and unreadable. Every blow forced Gambit back several steps, they were moving farther and farther away from the rest of the fighting mutants, but Gambit barely noticed, unable to tear his eyes away from Logan's stony face.

Finally one blow threw Gambit off of his feet and several feet away. Dimly Gambit noticed from the sky flying passed him as he flew under several of the holes in the ceiling to crash into the wall in the farthest corner of the room from the others.

Gambit saw stars dancing before his eyes, and Logan looming up above him. But he didn't try to stand.

His ribs hurt, his head spun, but nothing was as bad as the pain filling his chest, suffocating him, the doubt. Back at the institute it had been so easy to convince himself that it was just some vengeance Magneto was pulling, that Logan did still love him, but that hard, blank look in Logan's eyes, no remorse, no reserve, Gambit wasn't so sure anymore.

Logan bent down, grabbing Gambit by the front of his shirt and pulling him to his feet and pressing him hard against the wall to his back.

Gambit closed his eyes, still refusing to fight back, and waited for the blows to continue to fall as tears slowly began to slide down his cheeks.


	9. The Fight, Part II: Resolution!

**Hey all. So, oh my god, only the epilogue left after this chapter! Huge thanks to Patricia16 and KariHermione for reviewing! (Sniff) I actually finished writing this story like 6 months ago, and I'm still sad that it's over. Oh well, so here it is, the chapter you've all been waiting for! Read, Review, Enjoy!**

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On the far side of the room the two groups were still fighting, paying no attention whatsoever to Logan and Gambit in the distant shadows. Well, all except for one. Mesmero stood in the shadows between the two groups, not involved in the fight. In fact, the only people who knew he was there were Magneto and Logan.

Most of Mesmero's attention was on Logan, as the mutant was fiercely struggling for control. Mesmero would not relent however and forced the one time X-man to continually strike Gambit. He tried to keep one wary eye on the main fight, as there was much random flying debris and such, but Logan was struggling so passionately against him that Mesmero was forced to focus all of his concentration on the rebelling mutant. This is the reason that the wily mutant didn't see the large metal beam flying toward him, at least, not until he woke up many hours later, once the fight was over and everyone was gone.

8

Gambit was cowering as blow after blow fell. He felt his ribs burn, his lungs scream as the breath was again and again knocked out of him. He choked, feeling that he was about to loose consciousness, when suddenly, the blows stopped. Gambit's head snapped up, seeing vaguely on the edges of his vision a cloud of dust going up half way across the room, before his vision was obscured by Logan's face.

Gambit didn't have time to react before Logan's lips had met his, Logan's tongue already pushing its way hungrily into Gambit's surprised, open mouth. Gambit choked, beyond surprised, his blurry mind whirling, but soon he was kissing back just as passionately. He didn't know what had suddenly changed, it might be a trick, it might be a dream, maybe he had died without noticing it and was in heaven, whatever it was, he really didn't care. It was enough simply to taste Logan again, to feel Logan's body against him.

But all too soon a scream of "Stupid, wretched, idiot!" came barging into their moment of bliss, and Logan found himself being thrown back against the wall. Magneto had seen them from across them room, realized what had happened to Mesmero, and rushed across the room in a rage to the pair.

Magneto was bearing down on Gambit, cursing. "You, traitor, have gotten on my last nerve! Now I'm going to get rid of you properly, like I should have before!" He raised his hand, to do what exactly, Gambit luckily never got to find out Logan jumped in front of him just before the hand fell again.

"Stay away from him," Logan growled darkly. The rage was emanating from him so strongly that it made the air seem heavier and more difficult to breath. But Magneto only laughed.

"Foolish man, how do you intend to stop me? You can't touch me," as Magneto continued to laugh Logan crumpled over, his hand clutched to his right ear as a small grunt of pain tore through his lips.

That was it. The spell of shock that seemed to have been cast over Gambit broke, and he leapt to his feet, sudden adrenaline and hate coursing through his veins and giving him renewed strength. "Maybe not," he hiss darkly, "But _I_ can," and with that Gambit threw every card he had on him, a total of five and a half full decks, at the disgusting mutant. The explosion made the entire building shake dangerously, and when the smoke cleared there was nothing left of Magneto.

But Gambit wasn't thinking of that. Instead he rushed to Logan, who was still writhing in pain.

"Logan?" He called desperately, pulling the other mutant into his lap and trying to hold him still, "Logan? Logan!" He didn't understand, why was Logan still in pain? Magneto was dead, it should be over, it should all be over.

Gambit felt something hot burn his hand, and he realized that the metal ring in Logan's ear had melted, but still Logan was in pain.

"Help!" Gambit screamed, now completely panicked. He was dizzy, his vision fading in and out, his chest hurt, his head hurt, everything hurt. He was certain that the only thing keeping him conscious was the adrenaline rushing through him at the eminent danger to Logan.

The others, who had been picking themselves up on the far end of the room, also shocked by the sudden events of the past few minutes, began hurrying over. At last they reached the pair. Hank knelt down quickly beside them, taking Logan from Gambit's arms and trying to hold the thrashing mutant still long enough to find out what was wrong.

Suddenly, Logan stopped moving. He stopped screaming, stopped thrashing, stopped breathing.

"NO!" Gambit yelled, grabbing Logan's limp frame from Hank and shaking it, tears streaming down his face, "No! No! No!"

Gently Hank tried to take Logan's body from Gambit, but the sobbing mutant refused to let go.

"Why?" Gambit demanded, rounding on the others, all gazing solemnly, "Why?" Nobody had the answer. "B-But he'll heal, won't he?" it almost sounded as though Gambit was pleading, begging for this to not be so.

"Maybe," was Hank's unhelpful reply.

Gambit lowed his head to Logan's chest, cradling his lover's limp body in his arms as he rocked back and forth, pleading almost inaudibly, "Please, please come back, please," over and over again.

Suddenly, just as even Gambit's hope was beginning to fail, there was a gasp, a choke, a cough, a heave.

"I-I've never seen one p-person… c-cry so… so d-damn… much," Logan choked, his chest heaving up and down rapidly as though struggling to make up for the air it had missed.

Gambit only gasped out a choked laugh of relief as more tears flowed down his face.

"Stop that," Logan scolded softly, reaching up a slightly trembling hand to cup Gambit's cheek.

"I missed you," Gambit whispered.

Logan smiled, "I missed you too, Cheri," he said gently.

8

A short while later, once the touching reunions were over, the small group hobbled out of the dilapidated building, every one of them nursing at the very least a collection of aches and bruised. Logan and Gambit had both refused the help of anyone but each other and were walking slowly, arms wrapped around each other, Logan, thanks to his healing ability, almost back to normal health, Gambit on the other hand, was still fighting unconsciousness.

Suddenly, Logan paused and glanced back. "Watch him," he said, shifting so that Gambit was leaning on Scott instead, before heading back just inside of the old building, where they could still see him.

The group watched as Logan stomped over to Pyro, who was just regaining the consciousness he had lost at some point during the course of the fight. Magneto's other cronies, besides Mesmero, who was also unconscious, had fled as soon as they saw Magneto was dead, leaving behind their fallen comrades.

Logan grabbed Pyro by the front of his shirt, dragging him to his feet.

"This," Logan hissed, raising his fist menacingly, "Is for touching my man." And with that he brought his fist down, his claws running clean through Pyro's chest to glint in a patch of sunlight behind the mutant. Pyro gasped as sanguine blood gushed over Logan's knuckles, before collapsing. Logan dropped the limp body coldly, and stepping absently over it, returned to the group, calmly pulling Gambit back, and continuing to the X-Jet.

**Now don't forget to stick around the epilogue, coming soon!**


	10. Epilogue

**Hey all! Huge thanks to Patricia16 and KariHermione! Oh my god guys! This is the end! (Sob). Read, Review, Enjoy!**

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Almost two months later, the residence of the institute, and a few other mutants in the neighborhood, were witness to the official bonding of Logan and Remy "Gambit" LeBleau. There was much joy and laughter throughout the day, which at last culminated in a grand feast and a cake so huge that they had to put it on a separate table.

At last Logan and Gambit stood to cut the first pieces of the cake and, following tradition, feed them to each other. They stood only feet from each other, everyone else grouped around to watch. But, as each held a piece, and leaned in to feed it to each other, they grinned, and simultaneously turned, each throwing their piece into the crowd.

Gambit's piece smashed into Scott's face, splattering all over his sunglass, while Logan's hit the Professor full in the chest. There was a spilt second of shocked silence before the group erupted in laughter.

Scott, wiping the icing off of his glass, turned to Jean, standing next to him and holding her stomach as she laughed, grinning, and smeared the icing that covered his fingers all over her hair. She glared at him, then levitated a huge glob of cake over to hit him again, but this time he ducked, and she ended up hitting Kitty instead.

And that was the beginning of the biggest food fight in Bayville history.

However, everybody was so busy laughing and covering each other in cake and other food left over from dinner, that they didn't notice the two guests of honor slip out of the side door.

They barely made it out into the hallway before Logan had Gambit pressed against the wall, kissing him passionately.

When Logan at last drew away, Gambit smiled at him, panted slightly. He leaned in and licked a small bit of icing that had somehow ended up on Logan's cheek as they had been escaping.

"I don't think they'll be missing us any time soon," observed Logan, as loud choruses of laughter and yells of delight floated through the partially open doorway a few feet away.

"Wanna go play stripe poker?" Gambit asked, grinning.

Logan made a slight growling sound in the back of his throat, also grinning. "Screw the poker," he growled, already lifting the bottom of Gambit's shirt. Gambit laughed, and grabbed his hand, leading him away to their room.

**Finis**


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